Friday, December 28, 2007

San Blas is a Blast


First, I have to add a comment about Isla Isabella. I forgot to mention we were amazed with the acrobatics of the Humpback whale for the first time. Some only got their heads out of the water, but many times just 100 yrds out we saw their entire underbellies as they would spin when they came completely, all 35+ feet of them, out of the water and make a huge splash. More were further out but all day we saw the whale acrobatics. As well as sang goodnight to by whale songs as we drifted off to sleep.

Today in anticipation for our poor perfomance thus far in the Emerald Bowl, I sported my OSU Beaver Football T-shirt (the luckiest one of the season). The information "God" here scared us to leave the dingy on shore as we would venture out for the day. He told us to leave it at this one Palapa, that was hard to see initially, but after realizing that is is just a string of palapa's together that people can park their cars under it is directly towards the shore from a big Blue building and the 3rd one from the left with the green poles is the guy who will watch your dingy for a fee. No Problem, but he wasn't there, so we found a sturdy tree and chained to it. Up a dirt road we walk, then at the blue beer distributors, we chose to walk rt (the wrong direction) for a mile to the crocodile rd. Only to be informed that the Jungle cruise center is about 100 yrds straight instead of rt. Oh well, we were on a boat and needed the exercies. For those who haven't been on the jungle cruise this boat ride was great. Mangroves, forming tunnels as we travel through, sometimes getting swatted in the face, dense ferns and other shrubbery around. We shared the boat (about the size of a pirates of the Caribbean, but with a 50 horsepower motor)with 8 other people from texas. We started the trip turning and banking getting water coming over the sides and a sudden stop to observe what looked like a plastic 18" crocodile, but as the trip continued we saw many different fish eating birds, lots of other crocodiles, one being over 6' in length on the shore (they were real0 Just basking in the sun teasing to you to put your hand out into their open mouths as our boats sat a very short distance away. At the end of the jungle cruise for 40 pesos per boat (4 us dollars), we went into the crocodile farm where they are reintroducing them into the lagoons. They also had javellinas, white tailed deer,and some funky marsupials thingies that climbed all over one of the texan ladies. It was funny to watch. They had many pens with crocs in them, some of them only had the small babies and others had huge 8-10 footers. I actually got a picture of Laura touching one's back legs. Then after the farm they took us to a fenced in and protected spring that had a cool restraunt on it too. Unfortunately I was the only one with a swim suit so I did not go in. The cruise back, we bobed and weaved threw other boats caring more tourists in, it was crazier than Mr. Toads Wild ride.

Next we walked 4 miles into San Blas. Upon entering this typical Mexican town were many open aired restaurants with cinderblock BBQs smoking fillet whole fish covered in hot sauce, or whole fish, or lobster. Oh it smelled so good and looked great, but we passed on them for another absolutely wonderful restaurant (La Familia). The town was ok, the plaza was cute centered around the catholic church can only imagine how great of a Christmas party we missed. Bht for those traveling this restaurant is definitely a can't miss! Best 4.50 margaritas my dad has ever had with fresh limes, stiff tequila, and ohhh so good after a 4 mile stroll. The seafood fillet was covered with clams, oysters (both not cooked), shrimp, and onions and butter cooked in a foil bag. Mom's dinner was great, it was the longest fillet of fish name, it was covered in lots of veggies, some bacon, ham, cheese, it was pretty good. I got a Laura's Fillet or something like that, it was in the middle of the names. it ended up being a bacon on the bottom with fillet of fish, layer of ham, then a layr of cheese wrapped, grilled, and smothered in a spicy cream sauce.......OMG SO GOOD!!!! Then laura got beef fajitas that were better than great with ham, shrimp, and cheese melted on top along with an assortment of veggies. The first taxi offered us a price of 40 pesos (4 bucks) to take us back to the dingy and we were all over that. Luckily we got back and it was there and our shoes and everything, making our view of San Blas and this bay that much better.

The jungle cruise and the palm trees alone are worth the stop. The bitting no se ems are not too bad, but bad on the shore during a full moon.

Sorry for the length and many spelling errors, but thanks for reading

Cheers,
Mike Peoples

PS GO Beavers time to get the 4th qtr update or end of the game......please oh god please have let us win!

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1 comment:

Crew of the Solstice said...

Good job on adding the photos and videos, Dave and Mike. Are you able to add them via SailMail? We haven't figured out how to do that yet. I'm jealous of your whale sightings. We're too far south for them now and miss them. Lots of turtles down here, though.